


Take Back the Tinsel

by asroarke



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends, Christmas Fluff, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, POV Clarke, Roommates, actual disney princess bellamy blake wants to save the red pandas, pining!clarke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-17 09:52:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asroarke/pseuds/asroarke
Summary: It was supposed to just be one protest. One night this week. How did it turn into five nights in a row the week before Christmas? Clarke was supposed to be getting her decorations up and finding Bellamy a different present and dragging Bellamy out to look at Christmas lights. But the only Christmas lights Clarke got to see were the ones that had been haphazardly thrown over the Arkadia Zoo sign, half of which were out, while she and a dozen of Bellamy’s band of red panda enthusiasts chanted, “No panda, no zoo” over and over again for five nights in a row while it snowed.She vowed every night that it would be the last time. But then she and Bellamy would get home, and he’d be so excited about an idea he had for the next day’s protest. And she was so relieved to see him acting like the old Bellamy again, to be passionate and determined like he usually was. So, she didn’t have the heart to tell him she wasn’t going.A Christmas fic where Clarke is determined to do whatever it takes to cheer Bellamy up this Christmas... figuring it would be drinking eggnog or watching Christmas movies, not standing out in the freezing cold to protest the zoo for removing one of their red pandas.





	Take Back the Tinsel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myonetruelove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myonetruelove/gifts).



> Merry Christmas! I hope you like it!

Clarke could feel her teeth chattering as they walked through the zoo. It wasn’t her first choice for a Sunday afternoon with her friends, considering it was December and too cold to go outside… but it was the only thing Jasper had suggested that Bellamy seemed even mildly interested in.

After Octavia left town, they had all agreed to do their part to keep Bellamy busy so that he didn’t think about it too much. Last week, they went out to the movies, but he was a grump the whole time. Jasper figured that doing something a bit more active might do the trick.

“You do realize that I know what you guys are doing,” Bellamy whispered to her, and she sighed. Figures that he saw right through it. She had known Bellamy Blake almost all her life, and in all that time, she still hadn’t developed a good enough poker face to ever fool him.

“We’re just worried about you,” Clarke replied, tucking her neck as far into her coat as possible. With a groan, Bellamy pulled off his checkered scarf and put it on her. “I’m fine,” she protested.

“You’re freezing,” he huffed, adjusting it on her. He was pretending to be annoyed since he had told Clarke just this morning to bring a scarf and she ignored him. But she saw something softer behind his eyes, the gentle way he always seemed to be taking care of her. She felt her chest start to warm, probably a little too much for someone who was supposed to just be her best friend. As soon as he turned around, Clarke caught herself sniffing the scarf, loving how it smelled just like him. “Come on. I gotta pretend like Jasper’s plan is working.”

She fell in step with him as they caught up to Jasper and Monty, who were giggling at the meercats. Raven and Murphy were leaning against the exhibit, taking turns rolling their eyes. When Clarke glanced over at Bellamy, he was forcing a smile. She felt a pang in her chest, knowing that as soon as they went home, it would be replaced with his normal gloomy expression. Octavia leaving had been hard on him, especially since it hadn’t been on good terms.

Clarke linked arms with Bellamy, and his smile grew a bit more sincere. “Hey, let’s go find the red pandas. You love those guys,” Clarke suggested. They hadn’t been to the zoo in years, probably not since college, but she distinctly remembered that Bellamy adored them. “Guys, we can come back to the meercats, I promise.”

Jasper and Monty chatted amongst themselves as the group made their way to the red panda enclosure. Bellamy stayed quiet, not even offering a witty remark when Murphy got a little too snarky, which worried Clarke.

She hadn’t ever seen him like this. And now that he had moved into her apartment, she knew that he was like this all the time. Octavia leaving was taking a bigger toll than her fighting with him ever did, and Clarke wasn’t sure she knew how to make Bellamy feel better. It was breaking her heart to see him so devastated, especially this close to Christmas. In all his life, he has never spent a Christmas without his sister, and now, he was all alone for it.

Well, not completely alone. He was spending his Christmas with Clarke. But while Bellamy was happy to spend Christmas with his best friend, Clarke knew that she wasn’t who he really wanted to be with for the holidays.

When they got up to the enclosure, Clarke noticed that it seemed to be under construction. “They must be moving them,” Raven offered, but Clarke was already looking around for someone who worked at the zoo. Finally, she spotted someone working at the small concession stand.

“Clarke,” Bellamy groaned, but she had already started powerwalking over.

“Excuse me,” she said, and the teenager working the stand finally looked up from his phone. “Do you know what is going on with the red pandas?”

“Oh, they’re moving,” he said, and Clarke felt Bellamy finally catch up to her. “They’re making a smaller enclosure since there’ll only be one red panda in there starting January.”

“Why only one?” Bellamy asked.

“Arkadia Zoo is making cuts. They’re gonna sell one of them to another zoo. I think in Mt. Weather,” the kid shrugged.

“Oh,” Clarke said, feeling disappointed. “Thanks.” She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of another animal here that Bellamy seemed to like. “Hey, why don’t we go find the monkeys so that we can watch Jasper freak out over them?” she grinned up at Bellamy, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring off toward the red panda enclosure with a strange expression on his face. “Bell.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled, “what were you saying?”

 

* * *

 

She couldn’t figure out how her mom managed to make the tissue inside gift boxes look so elegant, because every time Clarke tried it, it looked like a disaster. Clarke was sitting on her bed, trying to wrap up the shirts she had bought for Bellamy as neatly as she could… but she couldn’t even get the tissue to look right.

“Hey, so I was online,” Bellamy said as he barged into her room. Clarke dove over the box, covering it up before he could see it.

“Bellamy! I am wrapping your Christmas present!” she snapped, but he didn’t look up from his laptop as he plopped down beside her.

“You got me the flannel shirts you caught me looking at last week, right?” he smirked as Clarke hid the unwrapped present under her pillow.

“No,” she lied.

“You are many things, princess, but sneaky is not one of them,” he teased, and she elbowed him in the side. “So, what are you doing after work tomorrow?”

“You and I are going to pick out a tree, remember?” Clarke reminded him.

“We can still do that,” he said before spinning his laptop around. She furrowed her eyebrows as she saw some kind of forum. As soon as she saw the username _augustusblake_ , she knew he was up to something. “I think we should go to the protest first.”

“And what are we protesting?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“The zoo, obviously,” he said, not even a hint of joking in his tone. Clarke furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at him. “You know, because of the red pandas.”

Clarke rested her head against her headboard, having completely forgotten about the red panda thing yesterday. But Bellamy clearly hadn’t… in fact, he seemed extremely invested in it. It was the most interested he had seemed in anything for weeks now.

“Um, so, we’re just gonna show up and protest the zoo?” Clarke asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“And we’re gonna make signs. Well, you’re going to make signs because I have terrible handwriting and you could probably draw a cute red panda on one, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Clarke said, narrowing her eyes at him. It was weird how energized he was about this. Sure, he liked the red pandas whenever they visited the zoo, but he had never seemed this obsessed with them. It was a bummer that one of them was leaving, but that kind of thing happened all the time since their zoo didn’t get a lot of funding. Bellamy never reacted like this before. “But we’ll need to buy posters and—”

“Well, let’s go,” he interrupted. Clarke looked down at herself, already changed into her pajama bottoms and taken off her bra.

“Give me a minute, and we can go.”

“Okay, but hurry,” he said as he jumped off her bed and practically sprinted out of her room. Clarke sat there, her jaw going slack as she processed whatever the hell just happened. For weeks, all she had wanted was something Bellamy was excited enough about to get him to stop moping… she just never thought it would be red pandas.

 

* * *

 

It was supposed to just be one protest. One night this week. How did it turn into five nights in a row the week before Christmas? Clarke was supposed to be getting her decorations up and finding Bellamy a different present and dragging Bellamy out to look at Christmas lights. But the only Christmas lights Clarke got to see were the ones that had been haphazardly thrown over the Arkadia Zoo sign, half of which were out, while she and a dozen of Bellamy’s band of red panda enthusiasts chanted, “No panda, no zoo” over and over again for five nights in a row while it snowed.

She vowed every night that it would be the last time. But then she and Bellamy would get home, and he’d be so excited about an idea he had for the next day’s protest. And she was so relieved to see him acting like the old Bellamy again, to be passionate and determined like he usually was. So, she didn’t have the heart to tell him she wasn’t going.

On day six, she swung by the store on the way home from work to get handwarmers so she could at least delay her descent into hypothermia. And when she got home, Bellamy was on the phone. She ducked into her bedroom quietly, looking for her warmest sweater that was clean. She threw leggings on under her jeans and remembered her scarf, but when she came back out, Bellamy wasn’t dressed. “Are we not protesting tonight?”

“No,” he mumbled. He was sitting at the kitchen table, staring down at his coffee cup, looking like a kicked puppy. It was a lot like how he had seemed before they started doing the protests, back when all he was thinking about was Octavia taking off.

“Why not?” Clarke asked. As much as she hated being out there, she’d do it every night if it meant making Bellamy happy.

“I just asked the owner what it would take to keep the red panda at the zoo, and at the end of the day, it’s just too expensive. They want to keep them together, but they can’t. And they’re not the only animals this is happening to,” he sighed.

“Oh,” she murmured. She reached over to grab his hand, expecting him to turn it over like he always did, but he didn’t. “I’m sorry. I know how important this was to you.”

“Those red pandas have been together in that zoo since they were babies, Clarke,” he snapped, jerking his hand out of her grasp. “They are a family, and now, one of them is being shipped off to God knows where, leaving the other one all alone.”

Clarke blinked a few times, realizing the real reason Bellamy was so obsessed with the red pandas. It wasn’t about them. It was about him and Octavia, about how heartbroken he was to be left behind and to lose her.

It made so much more sense now. The way he grew distant as soon as he heard about their separation, his sudden interest in the issue, the determination to go to the protests… it was all about Octavia leaving. Bellamy looked at those two red pandas who had been together for their whole lives, and he saw himself and his little sister.

“Why don’t we work with them and do a GoFundMe for it? People love donating around the holidays, and red pandas are so cute that it might work?” Clarke suggested, but he was already pushing himself up from the table, a scowl on his face.

“No, it’s pointless,” he grumbled on his way to his bedroom before slamming the door shut behind him.

 

* * *

 

Clarke sat in her office, staring at her screen. Five hundred dollars was all they could seem to raise on GoFundMe. Ordinarily, she’d be thrilled that they had raised that much… but it was no where near enough. The zoo’s management had sent her an email, assuring her that the money would be put to good use, but it was a far cry for what they needed to support a second red panda for another year… let alone the rest of the animals that were going to be moved from their home.

What they needed were bigger donors, but they were running out of time. That other panda would be sent to another zoo at the first of the year, and it was already December 23rd. There was no way anyone could organize anything that could get the kind of donations the zoo needed, especially given that Clarke’s experience in the area was in bake sales… not in charity auctions or whatever fancy events her mother attends.

She blinked a few times, realizing she hadn’t exactly exhausted all her options just yet.

Clarke glanced around the office before picking up her phone. Her mom should be on her lunch break, but even if she wasn’t, she’d pick up for Clarke. They didn’t talk a lot these days, more because of distance than anything. She was happy for her mom and Marcus, of course. But she missed them too.

“Hey, sweetie,” she answered, and Clarke let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, mom,” she grinned. “I’m not bothering you at work, am I?”

“Oh, no. I took today off so Marcus and I could get the house all decorated,” she explained. “Are you sure you don’t want to come home this year?”

“I won’t leave Bellamy all alone,” she reminded her. “And he has work the next morning, so we’d have to leave Christmas day to get back for his shift. Just makes more sense for us to stay here.”

“I know, just thought I’d check. So, what’s going on?”

“There is this cause I’ve gotten involved with,” Clarke opened with. “The problem is that I found it kind of late. See, our zoo has been struggling for years, and now they’re resorting to sending some of their animals to other zoos just to stay afloat. One very specific one has been there all its life and will get separated from his family if this happens. I’ve been working with some people to try and raise the money the zoo needs to keep afloat for the next year while keeping all the animals, but we won’t make our goal by the end of the year.”

Her mom was quiet for a moment, and Clarke felt her heart start to pound. Finally, she said, “This is really important to you, isn’t it?”

Clarke bit down on her lip. It was, though probably for all the wrong reasons. She told herself she wanted this because it was the right thing to do. That the red pandas had to stay together. But that wasn’t why she was doing it. Clarke was ready to shrug the whole thing off when she first found out about the pandas separating. It was sad, but Clarke had just thought that was how life was sometimes.

But Bellamy didn’t do that. Bellamy wanted to do something to keep them together. And his passion made her really look at what was happening and do something about it, even if Clarke’s motivations weren’t as pure as Bellamy’s. He wanted to keep a family together, and she was just helping because she wanted her Bellamy back… and this was the first time she had seen her Bellamy since Octavia left.

And Clarke wanted to see Bellamy genuinely happy this Christmas, even if it was just for a moment. She wanted this because she could see how much it hurt him to see them separate. She wanted this because her heart shattered whenever she saw his sad eyes as he waited to hear from his sister.

And now she was on the phone with her mom because she was a little too in love with him not to do this.

“You have no idea how important it is to me,” Clarke confessed.

“Well,” she sighed, and Clarke anxiously gripped the side of her chair. “Okay, send me the info.”

“Really?” Clarke grinned.

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet,” she warned, but Clarke could hear her optimism poke through her steely tone. “We are having a few get-togethers and there are some people I could talk to.” Clarke covered her mouth to hide her smile because she knew what that meant. It meant that anyone who wanted to suck up to her, and there were a lot of people who did, would jump at the opportunity to give to a cause Abby Griffin was passionate about just to earn points with her. Clarke didn’t even have to try in Girl Scouts since her mom had dozens of lobbyists and socialites begging to buy Girl Scout cookies.

“Thank you!”

“Yeah, well. It’s Christmas. And I always loved that zoo. Your dad and I used to take you there all the time,” she replied, and Clarke swallowed.

“I remember. It’s part of why I love it.”

“Okay, now, if I remember correctly, you should be at work right now. Are you supposed to be making personal calls on company time, Clarke Elizabeth Griffin?” she asked, and Clarke ducked her head as she chuckled.

“No, I’m not,” she confessed, and her mom broke into a laugh. “I love you. I’ll call you later.”

“I love you too. Get back to work and worry about zoo things when you’re off the clock,” she teased.

 

* * *

 

Clarke stayed up late on Christmas Eve, watching the donation total continue to rise on her screen. At two in the morning, it passed the initial goal… causing Clarke to squeal so loud that Bellamy shot her a text telling her to keep it down so he could sleep.

She tried to go to sleep after that, but she couldn’t. She kept pulling up her phone to check the total, squealing into her pillow when it continued to rise even after meeting the goal Clarke had thought impossible just yesterday.

At six in the morning, Clarke couldn’t take it anymore. She rolled out of bed and darted toward Bellamy’s room. “Go back to sleep,” he grumbled into his pillow when she opened his door.

“Bellamy, I need to tell you something,” Clarke grinned, and he turned onto his side to face away from her. She rolled her eyes before plopping onto his bed.

“You are no better than a kid who wakes their parents up early in the morning so they can open presents,” he huffed, pulling the pillow over his head. She tugged it off him, giggling quietly at how messy his curls were from sleep. With a groan, he flopped onto his back. “What?”

“Have you been checking the GoFundMe link I sent you?” Clarke asked, knowing that he just rolled his eyes at the whole plan.

“A few days ago. But Clarke, a few hundred dollars isn’t going to cut it,” he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. It wasn’t fair how cute he was first thing in the morning, especially when he was this grumpy.

He flinched when Clarke thrust her phone into his hand, the brightness on too high for this early in the morning. He reached over to his nightstand to grab his glasses. And the second he saw the donations, he sat upright, completely awake now. “Is this for real?”

“Yeah,” Clarke beamed. He kept staring at the screen, his lips parted in amazement. “They get to stay together now, Bell.” His lips twitched up into a smile as his brown eyes softened.

“How?” he grinned. It was that same Bellamy smile that Clarke remembered him wearing when he got a homerun during his first high school game. The one he sported when he got his first college acceptance letter. It was the smile she had been missing all this time, and she wanted to cry because she was so happy to see it again.

“Guess word got around and a lot of people care about our zoo,” she shrugged, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “What?”

“Did you do this somehow?” he asked.

“I don’t have that kind of money,” Clarke replied. She should probably tell him about her phone call to her mom, but it seemed like a serious confession… one that would reveal a little too much about how she cared for him. “All you’re getting from me this Christmas are two flannel shirts that you’re gonna pretend to be surprised by,” she joked.

“What flannel shirts? I know nothing about any flannel shirts,” he smirked, and she smacked his arm as she slid off his bed. He handed her phone back to her, the smile still firm on his lips. Clarke wasn’t sure how long this news would keep his spirits up, but it was all worth it.

She wore the goofiest smile on the way back to her bed, sighing contentedly when her face hit the pillow. The red pandas got to stay together, and Bellamy wouldn’t be heartbroken by their separation. She made him happy this Christmas… and that was all she really wanted to do.

 

* * *

 

Clarke rolled out of bed around two in the afternoon to find Bellamy still in his pajamas and waiting for her on the couch. “Get enough sleep, princess?” he smirked, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“I like sleeping,” she huffed, surveying the room. Bellamy had already gotten the lights on the tree on and sorted the presents by which were for him and which were for her.

“So do I, but that didn’t stop you from waking me up at six this morning,” he replied as Clarke plopped down next to him. “But Merry Christmas,” he whispered, pulling her in toward him by her waist.

“Merry Christmas,” she said, smiling into his shoulder. “Okay, presents.” Clarke had been staring at the large box mailed in from Wells since it got there, and she couldn’t wait a moment longer to see what was in it.

Over the next hour, the two of them tore through the presents their friends and family had sent in. They traded candy with each other that her mom had sent for Clarke to put in their stockings. And the last present of the day was Bellamy’s gift from Clarke. She was so relieved that Christmas had gone so smoothly, that Bellamy had this gorgeous smile on his face the whole time. “You thought you were so sneaky,” he smirked as he unwrapped it.

“You just mentioned you liked those shirts when we were out. I didn’t think you’d remember by the time Christmas rolled around,” Clarke groaned. He pulled them out of the box, doing his best to pretend to be surprised.

“Please, you had the Christmas present look in your eye when I pointed them out. But thank you. I love them,” he teased. “Besides, I wasn’t talking about the shirts, Clarke.”

She furrowed her brows as she looked up at him, trying to figure out what he was alluding to. But unlike her, his face didn’t betray anything. He just kept on smirking as he folded the shirts back up and put them in the box.

“You know, you can usually see who donates on GoFundMe, and an Abby Griffin just happened to donate quite a bit to the Arkadian Zoo,” he explained, and Clarke felt her cheeks go red. “So did Thelonious Jaha, Marcus Kane, and a bunch of other names I recognized from that New Years party you dragged me to a few years ago. Tell me, when did your mom become so invested in red pandas?”

“Well, uh,” Clarke stuttered out, and his smile only grew. “Okay, I mentioned it to her, and I guess—”

“Clarke,” he said sternly, though a grin still graced his features. She had wanted to keep this whole part of it secret, to just give him the happy ending without showing just how far Clarke went to get it. But he already knew. After all, he could read her better than anyone else could.

“You were devastated that you couldn’t keep them together,” Clarke blurted out. “And it was killing me to see you like that, so yeah, I called my mom and begged for her help.”

Bellamy pressed his lips together, trying to suppress his smile. “Clarke Griffin, the girl who is too proud to take her mom’s money when she struggled with rent two months ago, asked her for a favor just to cheer me up?” he teased, and Clarke ducked her head.

“That’s not—”

“On top of protesting out in the cold for a week when I figured you would bail after the first night since you hate being out in the cold,” he continued, tilting her head up with his hand so she had to look at him. His smile was bright, and his eyes were warm. It was her favorite version of Bellamy, the one that she loved to curl up into and feel his arms around her, the one that was so full of energy and love that it was contagious. “You did all that just to make me feel better, huh?”

“Of course, I did. I’d…” she said, trailing off before she admitted that she would do literally anything for him. Clarke did all that just to get one real smile out of him, not even sure if it would be enough to keep that smile for more than a moment. “I just… you were really upset about it, and I wanted to fix it for you, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered, and she let her head fall onto his shoulder with a sigh of relief. She was grateful he didn’t push her on it further, that he just accepted it as a thing they did for each other. She wasn’t about to throw her own feelings at him to explain why it affected her so much to see him like that.

Then, she felt Bellamy press the faintest kiss into her hair, and Clarke froze. He had never done _that_ before. “Thank you,” he murmured, not quite lifting his lips from her yet. Her eyes fluttered shut while her heart pounded, just soaking in the affection. “I feel really stupid for getting you a book when you got me a red panda.”

Clarke giggled as she pulled her head back, shaking her head. When she looked up at Bellamy again, he had a strange expression on his face. He was still smiling, though it was softer now. It was his eyes that confused her, the focused way he was watching her.

“He is the city of Arkadia’s red panda, Bellamy,” she corrected with a smirk. “You have to share him with—”

Her mind went completely blank, not sure where she was even going with that sentence. But it was hard to remember much of anything when the best friend she had been in love with for too long leaned over and kissed her right on the lips. His hand was warm as he cupped her cheek, and his lips were gentle and soft as they moved against hers.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, pulling his lips away too quickly. “I should have asked if—”

Clarke pulled him back into her and kissed him again, savoring the nervous chuckle against her lips as he gave in and kissed her back. This was easily her favorite Christmas.

 

* * *

 

The next day, it was Bellamy who woke her up too early like a kid on Christmas morning, urging her to get dressed so they could get to the zoo when it opened.

She got ready as quickly as she could, and this time, she didn’t forget her scarf. And once they were at the zoo, they didn’t even pretend to look at the other animals. She just let Bellamy drag her by the hand toward the red panda enclosure.

Both of them were back where they belonged, following each other as they walked the perimeter of the enclosure. She stole a glance up at Bellamy, who was watching them with a small smile on his face.

They took their spot on the bench across from it, lacing their fingers together as they watched the two red pandas. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, but it was long enough for more people to flood into the area to look at them. She got to see the little kids get so excited outside the glass, giggling happily when the red pandas walked past them.

Clarke leaned her head on Bellamy’s shoulder, feeling like if she smiled any more her lips might fall off. “Merry Christmas, Bell,” she whispered, letting her eyes fall shut when he leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“Merry Christmas, princess.”


End file.
